1. Description of the competition -Place: Outside room 523 at J.P. Taravella High School -Time: 3:15 p.m. -Objective: Construct a car that derives its force and power by a mousetrap allowing it to travel five meter. -Race: The car that I designed had a good head start and then it slowed down because I still made it to heavy to complete five meters. The car only went 3.9 meters and its trajectory was not straight so it traveled less distance. 2. How physics relates to the mousetrap competition? Physics relates to cars in many ways. The mousetrap car had potential energy when I was holding the mousetrap lever because the position of it brings force of motion to the car. The when I let go of the lever that had a string attached that connected to the back wheels axle it caused the wheels to go forward therefore moving the car a certain distance. The potential energy stored of the lever is transformed to kinetic energy to the wheels. The friction between the wheels of the car and the floor stopped my car eventually at 3.9 meters. Mass also had influence of how far the car went because if I had trimmed more wood the acceleration of the car would increase. Another factor that was involved in the race as the conservation of energy because it gave us an example how energy is transformed in many form and it can not be created or destroyed when the car was at rest and I had the lever it had potential energy then it got transfer to kinetic energy through the wheel by moving the car. Friction is then caused between the floor and the wheels where heat is generated. 3. Problems I had several problems with the car I designed. The lever was attached with nylon that wrapped around the back wheels axle. When I tried it at school it got stuck and formed knots enabling the car to move. The nylon was replaced with normal string but it wouldn’t go for a long distance because of the friction with the wheels. Around the wheels I put balloons and rubber bands to decrease the friction between the floor and the wheels. Then the lever was moving too much so Mr. McMahon taped the lever to the handle next to it and this helped the car to gain speed. http://www.candlefactory.com/jennifer
http://www.candlefactoryco.com/jennifer
